WE GOT THE FUNK

WE WE GOT GOT FUNK FUNK THE

Image 1: The emphasis was on dancing

Image 2: The crowd were originally predominantly black, but as time went by, it became increasingly multicultural.

Dedicated to my beloved Grandparents, Mavis and Fred

This is a title of a major 70s hit created by Positive Force. This article explores the funk scene in London during its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. Inquiring into the cultural significance of funk, how it was represented in fashion and how the sociopolitical context was reflected in the spaces in which it was celebrated. Afterall, design does not exist in a vacuum.

Interviews with Fitzroy Facey, a DJ and current editor and director of the Soul Survivors Magazine, Barrie Sharpe, a creative extraordinaire (DJ, designer, musician, and author), and Karen Herron, a dancer and partygoer during the 1970s and 80s shed light onto the topic.

First, however, we have to go back in time, back to London just after World War II in 1948. Britain was short of workers who were needed to rebuild the UK’s weakened economy as a result of the war years. Many of these workers, who were invited from former British colonies in the Caribbean, were employed in the public transport sector or in the newly established National Health Service. Both were salient in the reconstruction plans for the country. Nevertheless, newly arrived immigrants were met with hostility founded on deep-rooted prejudice. They faced racism on a daily basis, an example of which is presented in their search to find housing when several landlords posted signs reading, “No dogs, no blacks, no Irish”. Members of this group of migrants, known as the Windrush generation, were ostracised from white British culture and society. Nonetheless, this lead to development of closely-knit communities throughout Britain. They would come together at parties, listening to reggae music in church and town halls, and each other’s homes to feel a sense of belonging in a place where they were repeatedly spurned.

Fast-forward a few years later to the early to mid-1970s, and a new wave of music, headlined by the undisputed king of the genre, the great James Brown, has captured the attention of many children of the Windrush generation, welcoming funk into Britain. It offered a new, looser alternative to the already popular reggae. Funk has been described as a platform in which listeners are inspired to form a connection with ourselves, those around us and the earth and our environment. These are all themes that artists, such as James Brown, wanted to translate into their music. Funk music could sometimes be about the ‘get down’, sometimes it was about the struggle, and sometimes it was simultaneously about both. Nonetheless, it presented an instance of Man.

Ronnie, a legendary dancer, donning a leather jacket and quiff. Image 3:

Ronnie dancing in the middle of the dancefloor while people cheer him on Image 4:

Understanding Spiritual Information Clearly, an acronym for MUSIC coined by Kenneth Salaam, a friend of Kenny Gamble of PIR Records. Both Fitzroy Facey and Barrie Sharpe, two important figures in the British funk scene, described listening and dancing to funk music as being a holy, religious experience, where they felt a sense of oneness, euphoria and balance. It also presented an opportunity for people to escape and immerse themselves fully in music and dance.

For Facey, a child of parents from the Windrush generation, dancing to funk music was when he, his generation and the generation before him felt like they could express themselves, when they felt like they were somebody, when they felt empowered, despite growing up in an environment that acted discriminatory towards them. For example, on occasion Facey was considered British by his white peers when it was convenient for them. However, he was Caribbean when it was no longer suitable, notwithstanding that he is a product of both cultures. Moreover, there was also implicit racism demonstrated by the little positive representation of black people who looked like him in the media. While more explicit examples of racism include how black people were often prohibited from entering clubs or pubs, as they were ‘bad for business’. They danced and drank Ribena, a blackcurrant juice, and lemonade as opposed to buying alcoholic drinks served at the bar. Nevertheless, the escapism that listening and dancing to funk offered was not limited to one racial group. There was a unifying characteristic about the genre that brought people from contrasting cultural backgrounds together. For instance, Barrie Sharpe, a white Londoner from the East End who had a turbulent childhood, describes dancing in a funk club as the first time he felt like he belonged. The oneness of people dancing confidently on the dancefloor and expressing themselves was also translated into fashion and the clothing people wore. A person’s music taste could be deduced by the distinct styles associated with different music genres like reggae, funk and punk. The two former styles and music genres were popular with black people in Britain who wanted to express their pride and blackness positively; albeit it have been in varying ways. As was previously mentioned, reggae was the predecessor for funk music and the fashion that followed. For example, Dez Parkes, a legendary compiler, producer, dancer and DJ, who was first present on the reggae scene in the (late) 1960s, is considered to be a trailblazer for later generations. He had quite a varied attire consisting of all in one air pilot suits, sharp classic suits including tweed and zoot suits, flared trousers, fur coats and dark sunglasses, a debonair look. Well-tailored clothing also enhanced the execution of intensively practiced choreography to display on the dancefloor with his dancing crew including another well respected dancer DJ Trevor Shakes upstairs at Ronnie Scotts and Crackers both clubs in Soho, London.

This provided the foundation for both reggae and funk fashion; however, while reggae remained fairly classic, funk fashion experienced multiple evolutions throughout the 70s and 80s. In the mid-70s funk fashion was inspired by the smart tailoring of reggae styles and 1930s made-to-measure clothing, which were frequently worn by the likes of Sharpe, who remained true to this style. However, the fashion transformed to skin tight jeans that would have to be split at the seams to get them on, which would then be covered up by Chelsea boots or winkle pickers. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, funk fused with jazz to create ‘jazz funk’. This new movement was largely spearheaded by the recently departed DJs, George Power and Paul Trouble Anderson. The fashion became ‘freaky’ as Facey describes, people sported second-hand clothing, ripped t-shirts and jeans, leopard prints and skimpy tops and various coloured dyed hair. Later in the mid-1980s, faded Levi 501 jeans, biker jackets and James Brown’s quiff was the hairstyle of choice. Karen Herron, a known female dancer on the funk scene wore Levi 501s and trendy tops, or frilly shirts and jodhpurs. Contrastingly, the venues often did not mirror the debonair and funky fashion. They did however, reflect and correspond to the socio-political context of the time. For example, in the early

Image 6: Barry Sharpe in a bomber jacket in the centre of the Africa Centre in 1986.

days, funk was not played in mainstream commercial clubs, but was played at some gay clubs in London’s West End. This harks back to the unifying nature of funk music where it was able to not only bring people of different racial backgrounds together but was also people of different sexual orientations, a large majority of whom were ostracised by society. Other early venues included ‘Americas’ in West London that was located in a back function room of a pub. It like other places, like the Lacy Lady, were dark, with no windows, nevertheless, the dance floor, which often consisted of wooden floorboards, was at the focus of the design of the spaces. “Americas” even had a stage in the middle of the dance floor where the DJ’s booth was located, in other instances the small booths were generally placed at the foot of dancefloor. Other venues had dinner and dance licenses so food like, chicken in a basket, was provided for people to eat around the carpeted outskirts of the dancefloor like Crackers in London.

As the popularity of the music genre grew, more commercial clubs started to appear like the Electric Ballroom that featured a large dance floor in the centre, the 100 Club that put talcum powder on the floor to help absorb the sweat from people dancing, Titanic, or the Wag Club. You could expect to wait in queues to enter the latter clubs that were trendier in their decor with their murals and ultra-violet feature walls. Nevertheless, many of these clubs, like the Wag Club, had quotas for how many black people would be able to enter and how many black DJs would be able to perform there. As a result new venues were used to house these funk parties. The locations of these parties were often unknown the morning of, but there were instructions to wait at phone boxes at particular times, or information was fed via pirate radio stations like Kiss FM, Radical Radio 94 FM or LWR. Electricity to power the sound systems was collected by linking up cables and wires to electricity pylons nearby. Some places were grand, like the Diorama in London’s wealthy Marylebone, which had an imposing staircase and vast dancefloor. To access many places you either had to walk down into a basement or up the stairs, they were unofficial. Other places were derelict like old warehouses. Despite popular perception that the first raves that took place in abandoned warehouses were during acid-house, the first parties were funk ones. These spaces were large, and although had previously been deserted, they had been dressed up by banners, leaving an ample sized space for a dance floor, additional entertainment like games tables, and lots of people.

Nevertheless, in each space the emphasis was on dancing and connecting with yourself, people around you, and your environment, where “We Got the Funk’. In London, the music genre encapsulated the context of the time, its significance to people to feel empowered and to feel proud of who they were. This was mirrored by how it was celebrated in regards to fashion and where it was celebrated, despite the seemingly dark and undecorated spaces that the parties took place in, which complemented the expressive styles and dance moves of people.//

Image 7: The famous Wag Club.

SOURCES -BBC Bitesize . (2019). Experiences of immigrants in the Modern Era 1900 - present. Retrieved May 10, 2019, from Experiences of immigrants in the Modern Era 1900 - present - Facey, F. (2019, May 10). Personal interview. - Herron, K. (2019, May 7). Personal interview. - Sharpe, B. (2019, May 11). Personal interview.